Grosser Mercedes — big, two-ton autobahn blitzer from the Seventies

No other way to put this (well, there are probably several other ways to put this, but here we’re saying no other way because we can), but the mid- to late-Seventies Mercedes-Benz sedans were the uber-car for the autobahn.

And here’s a rare example from Bring a Trailer.com, a 1979 Benz 450SEL 6.9. We say “rare” because most of those cars had the relatively sedate 4.5-liter V8. This was the nearly 7-liter V8, the engine that gave this car the distinction of the 6.9 plate on the right side of the trunk lid and bestowed on this beast inherent bragging rights.

At the time, the car cost a prohibitive $40,000, more than twice the price of a Cadillac limousine, and would do an easy 140 miles an hour. This one, that Bring a Trailer found on Hemmings, was gone in a nanosecond — its asking price was in the $26,000 range. For that, you could buy a middling Camry or Accord, but then where would you be?